Introduction
Capitalism is generally thought of as a philosophy of economic methods, which works to the advantage of the private ownership, which is in charge of the production of goods and provision of services for income or profit by cooperate organisations and individuals. Several philosophers have critiqued certain basics of capitalism, including Marxists. This paper distinguishes and evaluates Marxists’ critique of crises, alienation and exploitation with the capitalist system of economy and society.
Marxist Critiques of Capitalism
Exploitation
Marxists view the capitalist system as characteristically exploitative. In economics, exploitation is connected with the expropriation of labour for the purpose of generating profit. According to Marxists, exploitation is a collection of social relations that forms the basis of capitalism. Workers in the capitalist system are being exploited by earning little compared to the worth of their produce. Marxists use the term ‘surplus value’ to describe a situation where by a worker works to produce much but receives meagre earnings.
Capital gains in capitalism rise by workers exploitation to produce more surplus value, mostly by reducing the wages of workers. Also, there is competition among capitalists over capital gain, by seeking new strategies to create more profit as well as surplus value, so as to transcend. Marxists termed this effort ‘the universal law of capitalist accumulation’.
Class Crises
Marxists argue that the capitalist system has a long-term existing tendency in the direction of crisis (that is, static and high rate of unemployment). The centre of capitalism is the crisis that results from the contradictory views and stands of the capitalist and the proletariat. According to Marxists, capitalists and the proletariat are classes, since they are representative groups in conflict.
Marxists believe that more people in the society would turn out to be proletarians, as capitalists are constantly gathering capital gain at the same time, competing against each other. As a result, few capitalists would be exploiting a huge amount of poor proletarians living on meagre wages in the society. Marxists termed this set of proletarians ‘the industrial reserve army’. Exploitation of workers and crisis in the capitalist system creates struggle among classes, in the sense that classes rally in a political manner to affect the state and raise industrial conflict.
Alienation
Marxists argue that the capitalist system alters the affiliation between human and labour, instead of meeting their needs or convey ideas. In the capitalist system, products belong to the capitalists, who cause alienated workers. Under capitalism, workers are alienated in the following ways:
- Labour transformative potentials are lost in the capitalist system.
- The organisation of labour procedure eliminates workers from each other. Also, workers have to compete against each other over pay.
- There is an alienation of workers from their products, as the products are owned by the capitalists.
- Also, there is an alienation of workers from their productive functions, as they do not work to meet their own needs.
Conclusion
Marxists has critiqued the crises, alienation and exploitation within the capitalist system and society. Marxists argued that capitalism does not effectively supply its products, the products are not mostly needed, and there is a general reduction in workers ability to afford the products, as high profits demands meagre wages.
Marxists believe that competition leads to excess production, which results into unemployment, and eventually causes economic depression. Furthermore, Marxists argue that capitalism results into destructive alienation of workers.